Hints on Pronunciation for Foreigners

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through,
Well done, and now you wish perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps?

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead-
And only Scotsmen call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat.
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.

A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there’s does and rose and lose-
Just look them up- and goose and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go, and thwart and cart-
Come, come I have hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive-
I had mastered it when I was five.

This is great. I was actually just going over words like this with a family member who is homeschooling her daughters. They are going through this kind of thing right now. Fascinating stuff and a little funny. Crazy how complicated the English language is.